Whole (film)

Last updated

Whole
Directed by Melody Gilbert
Produced byMelody Gilbert
CinematographyMelody Gilbert
Edited by Charlie Gerszewski
Music byCXR
Distributed by Sundance Channel
Release date
  • May 2004 (2004-05)
Running time
56 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Whole is a documentary about people with body integrity identity disorder, a rare condition which causes a desire to become an amputee. It first was broadcast on the Sundance Channel in 2004.

Contents

Synopsis

The documentary examines the lives of several individuals who have body integrity identity disorder. They believe that they are supposed to have a sensory or physical disability, with some amputating a limb in order to achieve this. Some of the individuals are identified using their whole name, while others give only their first.

Referring to themselves as ″amputee wannabees″, the individuals portrayed by Gilbert find different ways of coping with their disorder. George Boyer shot his own leg off, while Kevin had a healthy leg amputated by a surgeon. Besides that mental health professionals, including Michael First, an academic psychiatrist at Columbia University, speak about their professional experience with this condition. [1]

Cast

Release

Whole had its official premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2003. [2] It went on to screen at several other film festivals, including the Calgary International Film Festival, the San Francisco IndieFest, the Florida Film Festival and the Wisconsin Film Festival, [3] before it was picked up by the Sundance Channel, which screened the documentary on May 17, 2004. [4]

Reception

The Austin Chronicle gave the film 3/5 stars, writing " Gilbert’s film takes a wide-eyed and nonmorbid approach to her subjects, and the film is sure to become required viewing among psychiatry residents during their medical training." [5]

Carl Elliott from Slate is of the opinion that Gilbert made a sensitive film, allowing amputee wannabes to speak for themselves. The viewers are confronted with the struggles, people who are obsessed to become amputees go through, as they care confronted with their strange desire. [1]

Robert Koehler from Variety states that the great achievement of the film is, to cast a light on this "ultra-dark corner of the medical avant-garde" and to get both subjects as well as experts to talk about this rare medical and psychiatric condition. [6]

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Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventive surgery for such problems. A special case is that of congenital amputation, a congenital disorder, where fetal limbs have been cut off by constrictive bands. In some countries, judicial amputation is currently used to punish people who commit crimes. Amputation has also been used as a tactic in war and acts of terrorism; it may also occur as a war injury. In some cultures and religions, minor amputations or mutilations are considered a ritual accomplishment. When done by a person, the person executing the amputation is an amputator. The oldest evidence of this practice comes from a skeleton found buried in Liang Tebo cave, East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo dating back to at least 31,000 years ago, where it was done when the amputee was a young child.

In medicine, a prosthesis, or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth. Prostheses are intended to restore the normal functions of the missing body part. A person who has undergone an amputation is sometimes referred to as an amputee, however, this term may be offensive. Rehabilitation for someone with an amputation is primarily coordinated by a physiatrist as part of an inter-disciplinary team consisting of physiatrists, prosthetists, nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. Prostheses can be created by hand or with computer-aided design (CAD), a software interface that helps creators design and analyze the creation with computer-generated 2-D and 3-D graphics as well as analysis and optimization tools.

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Body integrity dysphoria (BID), also referred to as body integrity identity disorder (BIID), amputee identity disorder or xenomelia, and formerly called apotemnophilia, is a rare mental disorder characterized by a desire to have a sensory or physical disability or feeling discomfort with being able-bodied, beginning in early adolescence and resulting in harmful consequences. BID appears to be related to somatoparaphrenia. People with this condition may refer to themselves as transabled.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Medical Examiner. Costing an Arm and a Leg". Slate. July 10, 2003. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  2. "Local doc makes good". Star Tribune (Newspapers.com). June 27, 2003.
  3. "A brief screening history of WHOLE". Frozen Feet Film. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
  4. "Machine Age". The Village Voice. May 4, 2004. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
  5. "Movie Review: Whole". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
  6. Koehler, Robert (August 3, 2003). "Whole (review)" (PDF). Variety. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 17, 2022.